Leadership Quote by Tom Daschle

Daschle’s line is a small masterclass in Washington realism: policy doesn’t move on pure merit, it moves on managed belonging. By choosing the soft verbs - “want to feel,” “want to feel included” - he sidesteps any grand claim about principle and lands on something more actionable: ego, status, and the basic human itch to be seen as consequential. It’s political psychology disguised as a civics lesson.

The specific intent is tactical. As a longtime Senate leader, Daschle is translating institutional gridlock into an interpersonal problem with a solvable fix: give senators ownership, or at least the sensation of it. “Decision-making process” is the respectable wrapper; “feel included” is the tell. The subtext is that inclusion can be performative. You don’t always have to hand over the steering wheel; sometimes you just have to let people touch it, sit in the room, get briefed, offer amendments that will never pass - and then go home able to say they shaped the outcome.

Context matters because the Senate is built to reward individual leverage. Each member is a miniature brand with home-state pressures, donor ecosystems, and a reelection clock. Daschle is also acknowledging the chamber’s peculiar culture: deference, consultation, and ritual are not niceties but currencies. The line gently punctures the myth of the Senate as a purely deliberative engine. It’s an arena where “process” is a form of respect, and respect is often the price of yes.